Tables
There is a lot more that can be done with tables then the insert function allows for. This information has been copied over from https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Tables which is an article that I found very useful when I first started thinking about advance page construction. Wiki table markup summary | style="padding: 5px;" | table end, required |} *The above marks must start on a new line except the double || and !! for optionally adding consecutive cells to a line. However, blank spaces at the beginning of a line are ignored. *''' HTML attributes.' Each mark, except table end, optionally accepts one or more HTML attributes. Attributes must be on the same line as the mark. Separate attributes from each other with a single space. **Cells and caption (| or ||, ! or !!, and |+) hold content. So separate any attributes from content with a single pipe (|). Cell content may follow on same line or on following lines. **Table and row marks ( | style="padding: 5px;" | |} The cells in the same row can be listed on one line separated by || (two pipe symbols). If the text in the cell should contain a line break, use instead. | style="padding: 5px;" | |} Extra spaces within cells in the wiki markup, as in the wiki markup below, do not affect the actual table rendering. | style="padding: 5px;" | |} You can have longer text or more complex wiki syntax inside table cells, too: | style="padding: 5px;" | |} Table headers Table headers can be created by using "!" (exclamation mark) instead of "|" (pipe symbol). Headers usually show up bold and centered by default. | style="padding: 5px;" | |} Caption A '''table caption' can be added to the top of any table as follows. | style="padding: 5px;" | |} class="wikitable" Basic styling (light gray background, borders, padding and align left) can be achieved by adding class="wikitable". | style="padding: 5px;" | |} HTML colspan and rowspan You can use HTML colspan and rowspan attributes on cells for advanced layout. | style="padding: 5px;" | |} HTML attributes You can add HTML attributes to tables. For the authoritative source on HTML attributes, see the W3C's HTML Specification page on tables. Attributes on tables Placing attributes after the table start tag ( | style="padding: 5px;" | |} Attributes on cells You can put attributes on individual cells. For example, numbers may look better aligned right. | style="padding: 5px;" | |} You can also use cell attributes when you are listing multiple cells on a single line. Note that the cells are separated by ||, and within each cell the attribute(s) and value are separated by |. | style="padding: 5px;" | |} Attributes on rows You can put attributes on individual rows, too. | style="padding: 5px;" | |} Simple one-pixel table border An example of a one-pixel table border: | style="padding: 20px;" | |} Border width If "border-width:" has only one number, it is for all four border sides: | style="padding: 20px;" | |} If "border-width:" has more than one number, the four numbers are for top, right, bottom, left (REMEMBER clockwise order ↑→↓←): | style="padding: 20px;" | |} :When there are fewer than 4 values : :* three values i.e. top, right, bottom: then the default value for left is the one of right (second value). Width is then the same on left and right side. :* two values i.e. top, right: then the default value for bottom is the one of top (first value), and left by default is assigned the value of right (second value). Width on top is then the same as on bottom; width on left is the same as on right. :* one value i.e. top: then the default value for right is the one of top and it is the same for bottom and left. The fourth width are the same and build a regular border. This is a writing shortcut. Another method to define the widths of the four sides of a cell is to use "border-left", "border-right", "border-top" and "border-bottom": | style="padding: 20px;" | |} With HTML attributes and CSS styles style attributes can be added with or without other HTML attributes. | style="padding: 5px;" | |} Padding | |} Attributes Attributes can be added to the caption and headers as follows. | style="padding: 5px;" | |} Column width Column width can be added as follows. You type: You get: Accessibility of table header cells Table header cells do not explicitly specify which table data cells they apply to (those on their right on the same row, or those below them on the same column). When the table is rendered in a visual 2D environment, this is usually easy to infer. However when tables are rendered on non-visual media, you can help the browser to determine which table header cell applies to the description of any selected cell (in order to repeat its content in some accessibility helper) using a scope="row" or scope="col" attribute on table header cells. In most cases with simple tables, you'll use scope="col" on all header cells of the first row, and scope="row" on the first cell of the following rows: | style="padding: 5px;" | |} Alignment Table alignment Table alignment is achieved by using CSS. The table alignment is controlled by margins. A fixed margin on one side will make the table to be aligned to that side, if on the opposite side the margin is defined as auto. To have a table center aligned, you should set both margins to auto For example, a right-aligned table: | style="padding: 5px;" | |} And a center-aligned table: | style="padding: 5px;" | |} Table floating around text If you align a table to the right or the left side of the page, the text that comes after the table starts at the end of it, leaving an empty space around the table. You can make the text to be wrapped around the table by making the table to float around the text instead of just aligning it. This can be achieved using the float CSS attribute, which can specify where the table floats to the right side or to the left. When using float, margins doesn't control table alignment and can be used to specify the margin between the table and the surrounding text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. | style="padding: 5px;" | Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. |} Cell contents alignment The alignment of cell contents can be controlled with 2 different CSS properties: text-align and vertical-align. text-align can be specified at the table, row or individual cells, while vertical-align only can be specified at individual rows or cells. | style="padding: 5px;" | |} Caveats Negative numbers If you start a cell on a new line with a negative number with a minus sign (or a parameter that evaluates to a negative number), your table can get broken, because the characters |- will be parsed as the wiki markup for table row, not table cell. To avoid this, insert a space before the value (| -6) or use in-line cell markup (|| -6). CSS vs attributes Table borders specified through CSS rather than the border attribute will render incorrectly in a small subset of text browsers. Common attributes for columns, column groups and row groups The MediaWiki syntax for tables currently offers no support for specifying common attributes for columns (with the HTML element ), column groups (HTML element ) and row groups (HTML elements , and ). Those standard HTML elements are not accepted even in their HTML or XHTML syntax. All the rows and cells (header or data) of the table are rendered within a single implicit row group (HTML element ) without any attributes or styles. See also * Sorting rows of a table * m:Help:Sorting * w:Help:Tables * Easy tool that helps generating tables Notes Category:Help